With world oil demand growing, supplies dwindling and the potential for weather- and conflict-related supply interruptions, other types of fuels and technologies are needed to help pick up the slack.

A group of experts in science, engineering and public policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Imperial College London and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory recommend a comprehensive research and policy plan aimed at increasing the practicality of using biofuels and biomaterials as a supplement to petroleum. The review article, called “The Path Forward for Biofuels and Biomaterials,” appears in the Jan. 27 issue of Science.

“We can readily address, with research, 30 percent of current transportation fuel needs. But reaching that goal will require 5-10 years and significant policy and technical effort,” said Dr. Arthur Ragauskas, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a lead on the project.

Wood chips used to make bioethanol. Courtesy of the Georgia Institute of Technology

Using ethanol — alcohol produced from corn or other plants — instead of gasoline is more energy-efficient than oil say researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. In a study published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, Berkeley scientists show that producing ethanol from corn uses much less petroleum than producing gasoline.

Consumers can soon enjoy soap, shampoos and many other products containing palm oil with a clean conscience following overwhelmingly acceptance by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) — a group of producers, buyers, retailers, financial institutions and NGOs — on a set of criteria for the responsible production of palm oil.

To meet Kyoto protocol commitments, various European and other governments are encouraging the use of biomass as fuel (biofuel) in transport and electricity. Biofuels are mostly carbon neutral, and switching from fossil fuels to biodiesel is promoted as a solution to climate change. Rainforests will be threatened by increased demand for agricultural products to be raised on once forested lands, and by use of forest biomass as a fuel. An unregulated rush to biofuels will lead to more natural rainforest loss and fragmentation, increased pressures upon endangered primary forests, and more monoculture, herbicide laden and genetically modified tree plantations.

While many think of ethanol when they think of biofuels, the group recommends a much broader spectrum of possible materials including agriculture wastes such as corn stovers and wheat stalks, fast-growing trees such as poplar and willow and several perennial energy crops such as switchgrass.

In addition to including more diversity in materials, the group also recommends some changes to the plants themselves using techniques such as accelerated domestication to make them more efficient energy crops. But doubling the productivity of energy crops will mean identifying constraints and correcting them with genomic tools.

To make biofuels a truly practical alternative to petroleum, the group says there will need to be significant improvements in how biofuel is processed. Their vision is for a fully integrated biorefinery, which is designed to take advantage of advances in plant science and innovative biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power and chemicals from biomass.

The biorefinery would work much like a petroleum refinery, which produces multiple fuels and products from petroleum.

The group based its recommendations on research studies, including studies on the development of rapid-growth, high-energy content trees and perennials, novel environmentally friendly biomass extraction technologies, innovative catalysts for the conversion of agriculture and wood residues to bioethanol/diesel and hydrogen, bio-fuel cells and next-generation green plastics and materials prepared from sustainable sources such as plants, sunlight and wastes.

Other team leaders on the project include Dr. Charlotte Williams and Dr. Richard Murphy from the Imperial College London and Dr. Brian Davidson from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Other key collaborators include Dr. Charles Liotta, Dr. Charles Eckert, John Cairney, James Frederick and Jason P. Hallett from Georgia Tech, Dr. Richard Templer, George Britovsek and David Leak from Imperial College London; and Dr. Lee Riedinger, Jonathan R. Mielenz and Timothy Tschaplinski from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

This is a modified news release from the Georgia Institute of Technology.